The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

seems ... mostly wrong? how is that right?

that is very wrong

I'd say it's wrong in terms of visibility/popularity; the Replacements never came close to having the profile in the US that the Smiths had in the UK. The Smiths at least had some big chart hits, didn't they? The most the 'mats could do was one brilliant SNL appearance, and a self-sabotaged opening slot on a Tom Petty arena tour.

the replacements were the warren g harding of bar bands

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Warren_G_Harding-Harris_%26_Ewing.jpg/220px-Warren_G_Harding-Harris_%26_Ewing.jpg
Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfied

I'll Be You was top 100 I think, barely

seems ... mostly wrong? how is that right?

• Fans above-average emotional attachment. The 'Mats connected to teens in the states in a manner not unlike The Smiths did with young Brits.
• Openly direct lyrics about relationships.
• Charismatic frontmen w/solo careers that way overshadows rest of group members post-band work.
• Bands heydays roughly parallel.
• Catalog centers on one totemic masterpiece.
• Hugely popular in States despite not actually connecting w/masses.

•Catalog centers on one totemic masterpiece.

no way this is true w/ the smiths, tho I agree w/ various other parts

like the smiths, the replacements used the emerging indie rock sound of the era to deliver fairly sophisticated, poetic and personal lyrics. each band was also very strongly of its nation.

Being one of the bigger underground bands in a massive place like the US is a bit different to having actual top 40 hits in the UK

Replacements were hardly bigger than Sonic Youth (were they, I really can't tell) in the late 80s

westerberg's solo career has been a bust commercially except for the song from the singles soundtrack

Replacements were hardly bigger than Sonic Youth (were they, I really can't tell) in the late 80s

I would say the 'mats were definitely bigger than pre-Dirty SY. The 'mats had been on national network TV twice, were a major label since 1985, and got the aforementioned Petty slot. SY at the time was still playing 1500-3000-capacity places, and didn't get on DGC until 1989.

think the results here reflect the way i remember it, and I WAS THERE, MAN

HUSKER DU V. Replacements

There are days when I think nothing of comparing the two together, there's others where I think they have absolutely nothing to do with each other

Du vs. Mats I mean

stink and sorry ma are still great, they were better when they were still figuring out what the hell they were doing

eh, i love them best as a vehicle and foil for westerberg's brokenhearted everyman-poet shtick: "color me impressed", "androgynous" (yeah, i know), "answering machine", "here comes a regular", "skyway"

cry in your beer type shit

[almost typed "cry in your bear", but i guess that works too]

Back when the 'Mats reissue came out, the reviewer in Mojo wrote something along the lines of them being "America's Smiths", which is equally right and wrong.

― Lady Writer, Male Seether (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, January 19, 2012 3:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

one of the first threads i remember on ilx years ago was the one about "guns and roses are the american smiths"

Mr. Shuffle reminded me this morning about-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCPvwORqHVs

If all their post-Let It Be output was produced and performed like this, there would be much less debate about the Sire years.

The American Smiths

bendy OTM. one of my favorite songs of that era.

Nah, that's an example of the kind of song that deserved the gentler treatment IMO - something the Replacements did better and more frequently than the Du

Then again I prefer the bells and whistles version of Can't Hardly Wait, what do I know

Always thought "The American Smiths" were Long Island band and nabisco favorite My Favorite, but looking forward to entertaining other points of view.

I was listening to a mid-period Replacements live tape-flac earlier today, unrelated to this thread, and wondering about their placement.

It wasn't really punk or hardcore like the sst or homestead bands, and it was too raw to fit in the the Americana stuff like Blasters and Long Ryders.

I also heard some Blue Ash today, and I think that is were the Replacements fit, Midwest Faces influenced power-pop, played a little bit too loud and sloppy. I love their songs though.

I think they were the "American Cure". because "Androgynous" goes well with "Love Cats" on a cassette.

they were so very good at this time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUFWnbz2siM

Here's their '86 SNL night, less sloppy than I remember: http://redredwineonasunday.blogspot.com/2009/11/replacements-banned-from-saturday-night_28.html.

I did remember them all falling down at the end of "Bastards," and one of my friends asking me in school on Monday, "Do you like that band?"

Remember that, taped it, watched it over and over, memorized it. Had a similar Monday-morning reaction from my junior high "friends," who made fun of me relentlessly for preferring the 'mats over Arcadia.

A few days ago I found this live version of "Buck Hill" with a pretty messed up verse of "Another Girl, Another Planet" tucked inside of it

IT'S GREAT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XALqfxtMGxY

oops i screwed up the link but you can find it
buck hill!

my brother and tommy are bastards of old. hahahaha!

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/560927_10152134194595298_331312184_n.jpg

I saw a late screening of Color Me Obsessed last night. Why an 11:30 start, I don't know--if they're gunning for a cult film, there was me, my friend, and about ten other people. (They're already there.) As someone who was immersed in the Replacements at the time and still loves a CD-80's worth of songs, I found the testimonials excessive after a while. Robert Voedisch's (beard and glasses, if you've seen it) "Gary's Got a Boner" story was funny, but I could have done with a lot less of him. Nice to see Pete Scholtes. I was genuinely surprised at how little their Twin/Tone stuff sold compared to the Sire albums--even the last one, which I've never heard, sold about 90,000 copies to Let It Be's 15,000.

I read an interview where the director said he intentionally did not include music (as opposed to your natural assumption, that it was a right's issue). For me, not a good decision. I know music would have made the film more conventional, but there's so much close discussion of specific songs, the absence is jarring--for me, because I wanted to hear them right there and then, and, on the chance that you didn't know any Replacements music, the discussion can only do so much. The interview subjects did tend to choose the same songs as me as their favourites.

I found the testimonials excessive after a while.

I guess it just seems that for a certain large set of Replacements boosters Time's Musical Arrow stopped at one point and didn't move forward or backward.

You don't mean the Azerrad book, do you?

The interviewees really up the ante in the last few minutes, as the credits roll--one guy says their albums stand alongside mid-'60s Dylan and Exile. Again, I'm a big fan. But there's not an album of theirs (I've got everything except the last one) that doesn't contain a number of songs that just fill space, even Let It Be. (On the other hand, there isn't one that doesn't have at least a masterpiece or two, usually three or four.) I'd almost start with the Rhino compilation I wrote about earlier in this thread, which is close to perfect.

Was a little thrown by the way Grant Hart looks in this.

I just listened to "All Shook Down" today for the first time since it came out, probably prompted by a call for reassessment from Steve Berlin. But the album sucks, and Westerberg's singing is either weak or put through a constant flanger effect or something. Bleh. But then I put "Don't Tell a Soul" on and I love it as much as I always have.

The producer/engineer for All Shook Down says in the film that he wishes it could have been released with his and Westerberg's mix. I don't know the record at all, but my first reaction to hearing something like that is always "well, songs are songs."

Not Azerrad, Jim Walsh. All Over But The Shouting.

Couldn't stand Don't Tell A Soul, All Shook Down was tolerable.

Don't Tell a Soul is an abomination. I like All Shook Down quite a lot.

The Lord-Alge brother's recorded all the guitars Asahi-style, super-dry, and said "Not to worry, effects we will add later!" but then THEY FORGOT

Aargh extra '

Why do you all hate "Don't Tell a Soul" (and abomination? really?) so much but find "All Shook Down" OK? You really like the songs on the latter better than stuff like "I'll be You," "Talent Show" or "We'll Inherit the Earth?"

I like boots from the Don't Tell A Soul era because a number of those songs are really good. However, he production on the album has always been a non-starter for me; I just hate the sound of the record so much that even the best songs fail miserably. That's why I call it an abomination because I can't bear to listen to it at all.

Don't Tell a Soul has higher highs of songwriting (all three you mentioned, for example), but All Shook Down is a better sounding record and the songs are solid if not spectacular.

Ditto

Huh, yeah, I can see not liking the production, but I hate both the songs and production of "All Shook Down" much more, to the extent that I wasn't even sure when the album ended and the unreleased b-sides of the reissue started playing.

DTAS at least is a sound of a band, even if it's Bryan Adams' band for the most of it.

Hate that big list of collaborators and guests on All Shook Down.

Really don't get where this 'masterpiece' thing comes from for the latter - all that sound of a band coming apart shit, 'Third/Sister Lovers' stuff (see any Uncut magazine article, ever). It was a PW solo album, that's it.

The sound of DTAS didn't really bug me at the time; that was just what major-label rock records sounded like (and compared to Poison or Bon Jovi, it was positively lo-fi). But I vastly preferred the sound of ASD, even if parts of it are godawful. So yeah, EZ Snappin OTM.

Parts of DTAS ARE awful, and I even knew that when I was 14 (I bought it when it came out, my 1st of theirs) -- looking at that dumb song about the environment in particular -- BUT
When you're 14 and feeling super misunderstood, Achin' to Be and Anywhere is Better Than Here and I'll Be You and even They're Blind sound really really good. Paul Westerberg was my bff back in those days. Sixteen isn't the hardest age, 14 is.

Don't know why anyone would "hate" the songs on ASD--only one really bad one: "My Little Problem"

I also first heard DTAS when I was too young to care about whether the production was cool or not

I thought ASD was boring at the time but it was just too adult for me. I was a lot happier when I heard Sorry Ma.
Anyway, DTAS is an album I will stick up for even though I know it's not their best.

looking at that dumb song about the environment in particular

Is that what "We'll Inherit The Earth" is about? Weird. Haven't heard it in about 20 years. I kind of dig how soaring it is, but the single-piano-note-with-delay near the beginning bugged me far more than something so inconsequential should have.

The ASD songs sounded way WAY better live, particularly "One Wink" and "Nobody." I wish they'd release their final show (Chicago, 7/4/91...I think I still have a cassette of it somewhere).